Showing posts with label Astraea Press author Sherry Gloag. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Astraea Press author Sherry Gloag. Show all posts

2 February 2014

Sunday Snippet - 2nd Feb

 
New month ~ new story.
Today I am sharing a snippet from my short Valentine story,
Queen of Diamonds,
which is part of a fifteen author
Astraea Press Anthology
and due for release shortly...
 

“How could you do this to me — again?” Sybil Diamond stormed round her brother’s living room.” I told you I wasn’t interested, and it’s the third time you’ve pulled this stunt without my permission.” She whirled on Ritchie and aimed her fist low into his gut. It did nothing to appease her rising fury when he deflected her punch. Ritchie worked out more hours daily than she spent shopping.
When she nearly tripped on his discarded shirt she swore, bent to pick it up, and threw it on top of the pile of clothes on a nearby chair. “When are you going to shovel some of this lot into the washing machine?” she demanded; hiding a satisfied smirk at her brother’s wince. He may be a world champion surfer, but much as she loved him, the guy was a slob when it came to his living quarters.
 
Available at:
 
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There are lots more snippets from https://www.facebook.com/groups/SnippetSunday
 
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Look out for more information about the upcoming 
 Love of Diamonds Scavenger Hunt blog hop
starting the 12th of February


 
 
 

1 December 2012

Sweet Saturday Sample



For this week's Sweet Saturday Sample I am offering you another short sample from my current Regency Christmas Romance, Vidal's Honor

 
 
 
 
Blurb:

When plunged into a world of spies, agents and espionage during the Peninsula wars, Honor, Lady Beaumont, flees for her life when the French capture her husband at Salamanca, and relies on his batman to arrange her safe passage back to England.

Viscount Charles Vidal is ordered by Robert Dumas, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to travel to Spain and escort the only woman he’s ever loved, Lord Devlin Beaumont’s widow back home before the French discover her whereabouts.

Their journey is fraught by danger, least of all knowing whether they are surrounded by friends or foe. Will they survive long enough to explore the possibility of a future together or will whispers of treason be enough to see Honor dispatched to Tyburn first?
~ ~ ~ ~
       “Are you aware we’re being followed?”
“Impossible!” The denial exploded into the night air.
“Shh. I believe it is a fact.” Vidal grabbed Juan’s arm and hauled him into the shadows. “Mrs. Beaumont told me this afternoon she’s been aware of it for several days now, but was not certain enough to mention it before.”
“And she decided to confide in you today, why?”
“She didn’t, it obvious she’s been worried about something for a while but put it down to the loss of her husband and her concerns for the future.” He hadn’t but had no intention of revealing more information on anything than he had to.
“And you believe her?”
“Not at first, but I spent more time this afternoon watching our backs, and believe she may be right.”
The air filled with Spanish curses.
 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Return to Sweet Saturday Sample to visit many other awesome Samples.

28 September 2012

Sweet Saturday Samples

Another Saturday and another sample :-) I can't believe how fast this year has gone, let alone the weeks. This sample comes from a scene in a wip which may become part of Sacha's story in my gasquet princes series.
Thanks to everyone who drops by.


Rosemary studied her son, Callum Hamilton. Eight years old, and the love of her life.
 
“You know,” he said, rising to his knees on his bed, “you look like a princess in that dress.”
 
“Oh!” Shocked almost speechless, Rosie swooped down and hugged Cal. “What a lovely thing to say. Have I told you recently how much I love you?”
 
Quickly knowing how much she’d embarrass him if she held onto him any longer than a couple of seconds, Rosie moved back and made a play of studying herself in the mirror.
 
“I lack the crown, don’t you think?” Angling her head from side to side, she met her son’s reflected grin in the mirror.
 
“You don’t need a crown when you wear that dress.”
 
The floor length pleated skirt of her diamond blue satin gown billowed round her legs when she turned. She still wasn’t sure about the single flowered strap that led the eye to the snug fitting bodice hugging her curves and emphasizing her slender waist, but had to agree it looked good on her.
 
Instead of her son’s voice, the words triggered the memory of his father’s voice when she’d joined him at the alter of the Estate’s church on their wedding day. On that day, she wore cream Nottingham lace over satin, with long slender sleeves ending in a ‘v’ on the back of her hand. The woman at the bridal gown shop gave it a fashionable name, which she’d ignored. Love at first sight, first with her almost husband, then with her wedding dress, and finally with her son the moment the nurse placed him in her arms.
 
And now…
 
Don't miss the opportunity to read some more fabulous stories at Sweet Saturday Samples.

25 August 2012

Sweet Saturday Sample 25-08-12

Another week has flashed by andhere we are again offering more Sweet Saturday Samples for you.
Here is another sample from my wip for your this week. My heroine and hero are being questioned by a particularly suspicious gendarme.

Still held in a tight embrace, Honor listened in astonishment as Vidal castigated the intruders in fluent French for their untimely interruption.

“We beg a thousand pardons,” the leader offered, “but we are searching for a traitor and were told he was here.”

“Well unless he is hiding in a cupboard, “Vidal let his glance roam round the intricately carved wooden panelled walls of the room, “he is not here.”

“When did you arrive?”

Honor hid a smile in Vidal’s chest when she heard the doubt in the interrogator’s voice.

“My bride and I arrived,” he made a display of digging out his watch, “about two hours ago.”

One of the men standing behind the speaker and just beyond the door leaned forward and whispered something.

The speaker’s eyes sharpened and he stepped forward.  “What if I told you, you were seen in Bordeaux this afternoon?”

“I suppose it is possible.” Vidal put his arm round her shoulder and pulled her even closer to him.  Something inside her trembled and knew the heat spiralling within her had reached her face.  Embarrassment added fuel to her sudden longing and guilt added to discomfort.  How could Vidal’s kisses create such a storm of wanting within her?  And at critical moment when they were in danger of being exposed as English travelling through an enemy country?

“My dear,” Vidal’s finger beneath her chin brought her head up until her eyes met his.  A look, strong, demanding and yet full of an understanding the added to her confusion unsettled her further. “The chief of gendarme is asking you if you have seen the man they are looking for?”

“Man?” She dimpled at the official, who she suspected was more likely a soldier than a gendarme. “I have eyes only for my husband.”

“Perhaps I can jog your memory?”

Her heart pounded to the rhythm of her fear, what had she missed while daydreaming about her reaction to Vidal’s kisses?

“I think he means the man who stopped us in Bordeaux and asked for directions.”

“Oh, I see.” She let herself give in to her longing to touch Vidal’s face, and trailed her finger down his cheek, and hid a smile when his eyes darkened with desire.  “He was not as tall as my husband, more slender I think, and his hair was darker. Was it darker?” she asked Vidal. Then before he could answer addressed the man now standing directly in front of her.  “I cannot say for sure, for he was just someone asking the way.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“What could I tell him?” She waited for his challenge and when it didn’t come looked up at Vidal. “You gave him directions, did you not?” She let the memory of his kiss heat up her face again. “I’m afraid I only had eyes for my husband.” She reached up and kissed him on the lips.

24 July 2012

Tuesday Tales - Promt Dawn

“Time is an illusion.” ― Albert Einstein So, where did it go to in the past seven days?
Here is another Tuesday Tales offering to this week's prompt 'dawn'.
It is from my Regency wip Vidal's Honor

Salamanca – July 22nd 1812

“We’ve endured some bad storms, have we not Dev, but I misremember one as bad as this.”

My Lady Beaumont snuggled up to her lord, her head on his shoulder.  They’d celebrate three blissful, if unusual years of marriage in a month’s time.  Hopefully this time they’d be back in England and she’d throw a party like none before. 

“The lightning was so bright at one point I thought it had struck our tent.”

“At least we had some cover,” Honor sighed, “those poor soldiers have no shelter at all and Wellington will expect them to perform their duties regardless.”

"We are at war, my dear.”  Lord Beaumont pulled his wife closer.  One more day and they’d be on their way home.  One more day…


So why did Devlin dread the coming dawn?


Another burst of thunder directly overhead shook the ground, and a flash of lightning lit up their meagre bivouac, followed within seconds by another flash and another roar of thunder.

“It must be all of two hours since this storm began.”  Honor traced Dev’s lips with her finger. “Perhaps we should distract ourselves?”

“And how do you suggest we do that?” Pushing the unidentified dread to the back of his mind, Devlin kissed his wife long and hard.

“That’s a good start.”  Honor returned his kiss and followed where he led.

* * *

Visit Amazon or Barnes & Noble to download copy of From Now Until Forever and His Chosen Bride while they are available for .99c each in the Astraea Press Summer sale.


or

Go to AP FB book club and request a free copy Of His Chosen Bride.
Both offers end Tuesday July 31st

20 July 2012

Double special offer ~ Two books for .99c

Two books for less than a dollar! What a month! :-)


For your FREE COPY of His Chosen Bride
Apply to Astraea Press FB book club http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/319805601428268/

 and email reveiwcoordinator@att.net   for your FREE copy 


Don't miss the second special Astraea Press Offer - also available until the end of the month, and get


also available at Amazon

Don't miss your chance to get the first two Gasquet Princes books for only .99c


These offers last until the end of July '12 Don't miss out. :-)

2 July 2012

FREE everyday during July

His Chosen Bride
(published Astraea Press)
is the second book in the
Gasquet Princes series.
Blurb:
Prince Henri Gasquet is happy to let his father, the king, choose his bride for him until he meets Monica Latimer.
Monica Latimer is not prepared to risk letting any man close enough to learn about her Gift. A gift that normally has men running for the hills when they find out about it.


Excerpt:
She lost track of time until the flames caught her attention once more. They flickered from orange to gold, to silver, to white.

A flurry of snowflakes masked the flames and for a second Monica watched the most beautiful, pristine snow-scene she’d ever seen. Her lips curved in longing. How she’d love to get a toboggan and slide down that slope. She knew where it was, and had done just that many times in her childhood, first with her parents and then, in clandestine manner, with her brother. Sneaking an old tin tray from the back of her mother’s walk-in pantry, she’d then grabbed Billy’s hand and they’d rushed out the back gate, heading for the lakeside track that led up into the hills.

Darkness, dense and thick with grief dropped over the scene. Startled and disconcerted by the strength of emotion emanating from the vision Monica shifted to her knees, ready to stand, when a voice, a deep male voice, sharp with fear called out her name.

“Monica!”

She knew she’d never heard the voice before, and yet—it was as familiar to her as the image she saw in her mirror each morning.

Help me, Monica.”

Desperate for more clues, she searched the darkness within the flames until it sputtered and faded. With a curse she jumped up and ran for the phone. With her outstretched hand hovering over it she halted and let her hand drop to her side once more. What could she say? What would the police or rescue team think of her if she called them and told them she’d seen a vision of a man in distress?

They’d laugh in her face and classify her as a lunatic. Well, maybe not. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d contacted them with positive information but something—an instinctive gut reaction told her what she’d seen this time hadn’t happened yet.


To get your Free copy please email

* * * *
There's more information on Book One ~ From Now Until Forever ~ at

Blurb:
For Prince Liam, families meant bad news, unwanted commitments, and the loss of his personal freedom. Love spawned white picket fences, slippers at the hearth with a wife and kids making demands, so why did those images disappear when he met Melanie Babcot?

Melanie Babcot fought hard to escape the horrors of her youth and vowed to remain single and free, so when paid to protect Prince Liam from insurgents why did her personal pledge fly out the window?

Excerpt:
Liam Fitzwilliam Gasquet stared in amazement at the blooming patch of red milliseconds before the pain exploded in his arm. Some trigger-happy idiot had fired in his direction. Indignation didn’t have time to take root before another bullet kicked the dust at his feet.

Not ‘trigger-happy’.

Intentional.

The rebels had found the fourth and youngest son of Jean-Phillipe Gasquet, ruler of the tiny kingdom adjacent to the Swiss border. When had they discovered his whereabouts?

With a reluctant sigh, he faced the truth of it. They hadn’t ‘found’ him at all. They’d followed him.

25 June 2012

The Gasquet Princes virtual book tour




Today is the first day of my GoddessFish virtual book tour
for
- From Now Until Forever & His Chosen Bride -

the first two books in my four book Gasquet Princes series
published by Astrea Press.

20 June 2012

7-7-7

Today I am heading for the 7th line of the 7th page of my current manuscript and offering you the next 7 lines.

They come from my current WIP/Regency Romance called Vidal's Honor.

“My dear,” he’d said the previous night as they lay together. “This one is the last and then we’ll be on our way home. Do you look forward to seeing your friends again?”

In truth, Honor didn’t know. So much had happened since she’d arrived in Spain as Dev’s bride. Sights no gently bred woman should see, experiences even the hardened ‘baggages,’ as the troops called the women who followed the drum, declared, and difficult for any of them to come to terms with.
 
 
 

30 May 2012

Stop Press - Astraea Press Book Club

STOP PRESS - Announcement...

On June 1st Astraea Press is starting its own book club and everyone is invite to join in.
June 1, 2012 . Each month a new book will be offered for FREE to readers to read and enjoy. At the end of the month we will host a Chat with the Author and readers on the NEW Astraea Press Book Club at:-


Facebook group. http://www.facebook.com/groups/319805601428268/


This is a book club where readers are encouraged to post a reader review at Amazon, B&N and or Goodreads if they choose but it is not required. For information about upcoming books please join the Facebook group and have fun reading your free copy each month. That's 12 free books each year :) The books offered will span all genres that Astraea Press offer.